


0 kickstart

by hrtbnr (kiden)



Series: Kickstart [1]
Category: The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 01:25:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14739473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiden/pseuds/hrtbnr
Summary: A couple of more blocks and he’s bound to find someone.  It’s like that - the closer you get to the beach the more it feels like you’ve stumbled into an entirely different world.





	0 kickstart

**Author's Note:**

> this is a WIP based on a prompt about a love potion. ay. if you think it’s a good idea to continue or rework this or just think you’d like to see more please let me know thanks love u
> 
> more tags/ships would be added later if i continue ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Aleks is late.  These days it seems like he’s always running late for something. 

The heat in Los Angeles never breaks in the summer.  Sweat slides down the line of his back and the sides of his face, and Aleks turns his hat forward to keep it from his eyes. Against his thigh his phone vibrates again, and again, and again, until he can’t tell exactly how many text messages James and Brett are sending.  Twenty more minutes of radio silence and James will be angry enough to call off the entire night of filming. Twenty more minutes and, if he’s lucky, Aleks will be a different fucking person altogether.

A couple of more blocks and he’s bound to find someone.  It’s like that - the closer you get to the beach the more it feels like you’ve stumbled into an entirely different world.  Beautiful girls and boys who call from the boardwalk that they have whatever you’re looking for. Palm readers tucked into small shops, awash in pink and blue neon lights, who can trace futures along the lines of your hand.  Places that smell like incense and spice, musty but alive, like the woods after a week of rain.

The heat is suffocating.  Hand pressed to the column of his throat, Aleks can feel the rapid beating of his heart.   His chest heaving, tightening, and his stomach turning. His phone is still vibrating - ringing this time - and he can hear Brett’s voice in his head, angry, disappointed, asking if he even fucking  _ cares _ anymore.  If there’s anything at all that still means anything to him. 

A hand catches his arm as he turns the corner, whips him around quickly to meet a pair of big and bright blue eyes.  

“Stop,” the woman says, before Aleks can even think of how to react.  Her hand feels like fire on his arm; it’s too fucking hot. Soon the whole city will be burning. “You found me. Relax, kid.”

“I wasn’t fucking looking for you,” he snaps, wrenching his arm out of her grasp.  But she grabs him again, digging her nails into his forearm. “What the hell -.” 

“Okay, so who were you headed to then? Trevor? Lindsey?”  Fingers uncurling one at a time, she lets him go, and takes a step backward. “You were looking for me.  So come inside and tell me why.” 

“Yo, how the fuck do you know -.” 

Again, she cuts him off, and with a sigh, says, “You think you’re the only one who knows anything?  You came out here looking for magic, don’t look so fucking shocked  _ it  _ found  _ you _ . Come inside.” 

This woman is batshit insane.  Aleks knows that. But she’s not wrong, he’s here looking for something to  _ make it go away _ , because nothing else has worked.  And the weight he’s carrying is way too fucking heavy.  His feet drag the the rest of him inside without a fight.  Every part of him is tired. 

Once she gets him inside, both of them hip-to-hip on a small couch in the corner of her cluttered shop, she takes his hands, looks at his open palms, and says, “Tell me what you couldn’t leave behind in Colorado.” 

Instinctually, Aleks’ tries to cover his face, but she holds onto his hands tighter, keeping them on her lap.  He won’t fucking cry. But his eyes are burning like her skin where it touches his, and more than anything, the most absurd thing about all of this, is that even though he’s here, even though he’s this desperate, it’s still difficult to admit  _ why.  _

“Oh, boy,” she breathes, “why would you ever want to leave such love behind you?”

She’s speaking Russian.  Has she been speaking Russian the entire time?  Her voice sounds kinder than it did out on the street and something tears inside of him, until he’s hunched over their joined hands, and an awful, pitiful sound falls out of his open mouth. 

Letting go of him, she leans over to the coffee table in front of them to light a cigarette. With her other hand, she touches his shoulder, a light, comforting press of her hand, and doesn’t seem to mind very much when Aleks starts crying.  

_ Because I was supposed to be new here, _ he thinks, or says, and she tuts, rubbing her thumb against the side of his neck.  _ I don’t want to feel it anymore. _

Aleks knows she’s going to help him, can hear it in the small, thoughtful noise she makes.  Her hand sweeps up the back of his neck, knocking off his hat so her fingers can toy with the blond tips of his hair, and she says, sweetly, simply, like a secret everyone already knows, “ _ James. _ ” 

-

Give it time. 

That’s what she said.  Give it time, but she didn’t say how much time it would take.  

James’ anger has always been a flighty thing. It comes and goes from one moment to the next, and even when he’s yelling, Aleks is always forgiven.  Brett’s anger is much steadier, deeper, burrows inside him and simmers. Pops out when Aleks is least expecting it as sharp comments and long, unhappy looks.  It’s nothing he can’t handle though. Sticking by Asher’s side, grabbing lunch with Lindsey, fucking around with Trevor in the warehouse - that’s all easy. Giving Brett a wide berth is the easy part. 

Even sitting next to James is easy.  It hurts, but no different than it always has.  Pain that lives in the inches between them, from one side of the couch to the other.  And anyway, Aleks can never hold on to that unhappiness for long when they’re together.  James makes him laugh too much, he smiles too often, his eyes are too big, and Aleks has a million reasons why he fell in love with him, all of them soft and comfortable. A million reasons to forget why looking at James’ breaks his heart, sometimes. 

The difficult part is Jakob, who  _ knows. _

Who was watching Aleks from his desk as Aleks’ watched James and, by the time he noticed, it was too late.  Jakob had seen it on Aleks’ face, quickly drawn lines between what he knew to be true and the jokes, the internet, all the bullshit that’s always been there to hide behind.  And Jakob, who’s many, many things, can be just as bad if not worse than the rest of them, had nothing but  _ sympathy  _ on his face as he held Aleks’ eyes.

Sympathy that sent Aleks spiralling into the streets.  Jakob knowing made it real in a way it hadn’t been before.  Brought it out into the light from where Aleks had shoved it down inside him years ago as a secret.  Jakob knew that Aleks was in  _ love.  _  Not a stupid-frantic love that eats up your time and sense of reason, but the slow kind, the type that wraps around your bones and lives there until you turn back to dust. 

Now Jakob can see.  Not the way Aleks treats James, but the way he doesn’t.  That he won’t lean against him during gameplay the way he will with Brett, won’t sling an arm around him like with Trevor, won’t kiss his hand or face casually, the way he will with the rest of them, because it’s never  _ just  _ with James.  

Aleks’ meaning hides in what’s not there with James. The distance that’s on purpose. Those painful inches across the couch.  Confessions that have always been there, in the absent places.

So Aleks is waiting.  Waiting until all of it goes away, until his feelings change, just like that crazy fucking woman said they would.  Won’t look Jakob in the eye until he can do it, and say honestly, that he’s  _ wrong.  _

And while Aleks is waiting, that’s when James starts sitting a little closer. 


End file.
